1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a non-volatile memory device, and more particularly, to a 3-dimensional (3D) non-volatile memory device and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, along with increasing demands for portable application devices, such as digital cameras, MP3 players, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and mobile phones, the non-volatile memory device market is expanding rapidly. As flash memory devices, which are programmable non-volatile memory devices, approach scaling limit, non-volatile memory devices employing reversibly-deformable material films are being focused as replacements of the flash memory device.
Generally, integration of a semiconductor memory device is an important factor for determining price of a product. Therefore, demands for increasing integration of semiconductor memory devices are increasing. Generally, integration of a semiconductor memory device is mainly determined based on a 2-dimensional area occupied by a unit memory cell, thus being significantly affected by the level of fine pattern forming technique. However, as a demanded level of fine pattern forming technique increases, it becomes more difficult to arrange necessary semiconductor fabricating equipments and/or semiconductor fabricating processes. Therefore, integration of a semiconductor memory device is approaching to its limit.
To overcome such limits, a semiconductor memory device having a 3-dimensional (3D) structure has been recently suggested. However, the new structure causes problems including unstable process and deterioration of product reliability. Therefore, researches are being made to resolve the problems.